Backstage

Always a lover of mystical charm exercised by the woman feline, I freely inspired by a work of makeup and special effects seen all'IMATS 2009 and manufactured by Nelly Recchia, for the realization of this chimera, which contributed in costest istuito by the National Film Bologna.

The most striking feature of makeup are these huge ears feline style, which confer aggressiveness and at the same time sensuality to the face of Silvia, building with the rest of the face an almost perfect triangular.
For their realization, I leaned against the head of my faithful dummy annni vintage 70s often used for testing body-painting.
Being a project commissioned and without sponsors, I could not use the materials' quality’ and I had to make do with what we already had at home. First I then isolated the head with a thin plastic film for food, pulled to remove any pieghetta and secured with masking tape, so that it can stay as integral with the head. Once established forms and volumes with a quick outline of paper, also useful to create the symmetry with the other side, I started modeling phase with modeling clay.

Given the particular shape of the ear totally asymmetrical and the presence of several undercuts, I decided that the only way available to me to get that object, was to realize a mold in three pieces and with dual key (the top of the photo one of the two molds obtained with positive silicone attached).
Although it is not new to this dipo working, I guarantee you that the opening of the first mold has been as exciting as the opening of the Christmas gifts that I did my grandparents when I was a child.
The platinum silicone fact that I used (really not cheap, but it was one of the few materials I had available in good quantity) is a substance very sensitive, whose proper catalyst can be inhibited by many elements. Plaster mold, carnauba wax and vaseline instead worked perfectly.
Holding all the pieces, the realization of the work was not particularly difficult, but it required a lot of patience on my part is that by the model.
In fact, I started applying a cap (bald cap) in Glatzan blended with acetone, I also served to hide his ears and eyebrows.
I then glued the cat's ears with the pros-aide to the shell, ears that had deliberately left rather rough at the bottom and treated with talcum powder to facilitate the adhesion of the glue.
But also in the next layer gave uniformly over cap and ears, after sealing minor imperfections with bondo (pros-aide + Aerosil), I noticed an excellent adhesion over the entire surface.
The pros-aide dried with a hair dryer and then powdered provided a great base for color-based fat (Supracolor) used for the bottom.
In about three hours, also spurred by Silvia (my model, I owe a special thank you and part of the credit for the success of the project), I completed the, completing work with stencils and airbrush for the realization of the track maculata and eyebrows.